By Australian filmmakers Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ indie horror “Late Night with the Devil” has been scoring rave reviews across the board. With over 100 reviews counted, the film sits at a stellar 96% (7.9/10) on Rotten Tomatoes and opened in U.S. cinemas today.
The story follows a fictional talk show from the 1970s where a Satanic incident takes place during the Halloween broadcast. David Dastmalchian stars as Jack Delroy, the host of said talk show who introduces a parapsychologist and her subject – the teen survivor of a Satanic church’s mass suicide.
Whilst anticipation has been high, it was marred a bit in the past week or so by a controversy surrounding the use of AI-generated art for a trio of cutaway transitions (namely title cards) in the film.
A backlash sprung up on social media which has gotten bad enough the Cairnes have clarified the extent to which A.I. was used in a statement. They tell Variety:
“In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the 70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film.
We feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a talented and passionate cast, crew and producing team to go above and beyond to help bring this film to life. We can’t wait.”
Even with the statement, debates have continued and has gotten star Dastmalchian involved with his response to Kevin McCarthy saying: “The only thing that makes me sad is that we had such an awesome graphics design team and all the artists were working on making this film so perfect, so it makes me sad that that’s a story that’s getting attention. But I get it.”
“Late Night with the Devil” is out in cinemas now and will hit Shudder on April 19th.
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